Across the Sand Dunes
by DYlogger
Summary: MAJOR AU WARNING. Zeta and Ro run from a prejudiced Society that doesn't understand them. One-shot; possible OOCness. AGAIN WITH THE AU WARNING


**Across the Sand Dunes  
****By: DYlogger**

**A/N: Before anyone asks, I referred to Zee as _Zeta_ because it sounds more serious than Zee. Besides, we Canadians pronounce the last letter of the alphabet as _Zed_. And the Greeks; _Omega_. ;) I also changed it so Ro is _Rosalie Rowen's _real name (why do I keep thinking it's Rosalie _Richards_?), and neither of them have last names. And, for some reason, I switched the hair colours around so now Zee is blond and Ro has black hair.**

**A/N (2): OOC alert, especially Ro in the first part. (I basically made her darker, but tried to keep her spunk). I got a lot of the info off _The World's Finest_. Online, that is. This is my first time writing _Zeta Project_, and I've seen Zeta a total of four times. Ro a total of two. And all of them are Batman Beyond X-overs. MAJOR AU ALERT as well.**

**A/N (3): This is also my first betaed fic too. :) My betas are Jaycee (who is currently _Hooked on FFN_, but she changes pennames more often than I go out on dates, so who knows?), my friend with the initials of TW, and my other friend with the initials of RC. These people are not FFnet authors, which was how I was able to trust them to not steal my story. (No, I still trust online betas, I'm just more comfortable with people I know personally.) Except for Jaycee, but she probably wouldn't be caught dead writing for a spinoff show.**

* * *

**Ro**

My name is Ro.

I live in the year 2040, when the people can live without their physical heart muscle. They could do it _physically_, but they don't believe they would want to.

According to them, sensation and feeling comes from the heart.

When I was younger, my family and friends were ripped from me. Most would assume that the event ripped a piece of my heart out, that I avenge them, that I visit them once a year on their anniversary. But that's not how it works. I'm numb, and indifferent. I still feel, I still sense, but trauma has strengthened me.

"_Mom! Dad!" I remember crying as the single gunshot to their heads killed them both._

"_Whoops, our mistake. We were aiming for, uh, the wall?" said one of the goons._

"_If you come with us, we'll give you a home as, um, compensation for killing your parents," offered the other rogue._

"_No!" I yelled. I ran around the corner, then turned back to see them leave. I don't know what drove me to follow them. They walked to an abandoned building at, where I assumed, was outside the Society. The outside looked like one of those old obsolete factories that existed in the 2000's, but as I followed them inside, it looked like a cross between a lab and an asylum. There were a bunch of test tubes with different things floating inside them. Three cells aligned the wall._

_There was a boy in one of the cells. The label on the cell said, "Zeta". I assumed that was his name._

_I looked around the room again. One of the test tubes had a tag on it saying, "Zeta's heart." I've never studied biology, but it did look like a cardiac muscle to me. I__t__ turned out the rogues had extracted Zeta's heart._

_I don't know what possessed me to break him out. But I did._

I've studied human behaviour. When I met Zeta, new to the real world, I began to teach him. It turned out he knew more about life than I did. But the thing about Zeta is; he doesn't have a heart muscle. The people in my Society? They're wrong.

Zeta and I lived on the streets for a while. The government found out about Zeta and his predicament, and they assumed I had been killed along with my parents. We lived in hiding until now.

I rely on Zeta too much. If he were taken from me, I don't know what I would do.

Zeta and I ran away from my Society when they found out he was physically heartless. He still has the biggest heart ever. That was why I left with him. It turned out, outside the Society, there was nothing but sand. The Society had only created what it needed to.

* * *

**Zeta**

People are after me. They do it because I don't have a physical heart muscle. They believe that I need a heart muscle to live for something. I don't. I have a family, and I love them. Sadly, I can't be with them, since they are part of the Society. And the society wants to get me an artificial heart muscle.

From my history holo-texts, the Society used to be a battle-ridden town. It continued to be a dirty city until one unnamed person came by. That person turned the Society into the imperfect utopia it is today.

I'm on the run from the Society with my friend Ro. She's the one person I know that knows my predicament. Ironically, she's in the opposite predicament as me. She still has her heart muscle, but she has nothing to live for. Her family is dead. A part of her is dead. That part was taken from her by the same people who took my heart muscle. Because of that, she understands. She understands me. But I don't understand her.

**

* * *

**

**Ro- Day 4**

Zeta and I walked across the sand dunes. The Society police would find us sooner or later, but right now, we're walking into nowhere. We don't know where we're going, but what matters is that we're getting away from the Society.

"Ro," he began tentatively, "Why are _you _running away with me? You don't deserve to be away from a Society that loves you, not on the run with me."

"I don't love the Society. They took my family," I replied.

"But those were rogues," said Zeta confusedly.

"No," I explained softly, "They _were_ rogues, but they were hired by higher rogues. They wouldn't kill random people for no reason. And the rogues were still part of the Society. I don't blame the Society for what happened. I _do_ blame the Society for not bringing the rogues to justice. Besides, they also took everything from my best friend."

"They didn't take anything from me."

"They might have not directly done anything to you, but they indirectly forced the government, the Society, and your family to turn on you. I want revenge- not for me, but for you."

"Revenge isn't everything."

"I know that," I said, annoyed, "But it's still something."

Zeta and I continued walking, leaving footprints in the sand.

* * *

**Zeta- Day 13**

"Ro," I asked one day, "You know what this reminds me of?"

"The two people who crossed the dune about fifty years ago for the very same reason?"

"Yes. How did you know?" I wondered.

"I didn't," she answered. "I guessed."

"What were their names again? Bruce and Clark?"

"I think so. I hear they made it across to another City of runaways."

"I wonder if we'll ever make it to that City."

"I wonder why they ran away. The way we learn history is biased. They didn't give a reason, but I'm sure they had one."

I didn't say this, but I wondered if we would ever be in one of those holographic books. I wondered if we would ever be known as the people who ran.

* * *

**Ro- Day 26**

I remember our first day of being out of the Society. I have no idea how long it's been, but I still remember it very clearly.

"_Zeta," I __began__, "Why are you running away? Why don't you just… go with the Society and let them put an artificial heart in you?"_

"_Ro. I don't want something artificial giving me feelings."_

"_But you can feel now. If you just get an artificial heart that you know doesn't do __anything__, you can just live in peace without running away."_

"_But I _don't_ know, Ro. I don't know that the artificial heart __won't__ give me feelings__ that aren't truly my own__."_

_I was silent to that._

Maybe I don't understand Zeta so well after all.

* * *

**Third Person- Day 35**

Zeta and Ro stumbled upon a travelling caravan.

"We're running out of supplies," Zeta noted.

"We are," agreed Ro.

"What do you want to do about it?" asked Zeta, noticing the caravan.

Ro followed Zeta's gaze at the caravan, and heard the unspoken question. "No. We're not going to ask for food from the caravan. As far as I know, those people might be from the Society, looking for us."

"You're probably right. Let's look for an oasis."

* * *

**Zeta- Day 41**

"Are you religious?" asked Ro one day out of the blue.

"No," I replied, "But I'm not atheist either. I've explored through much re-"

"-Many" inZetaupted Ro.

"No," I corrected, "Much. I've explored through much religious beliefs, and they are all equally believable. As much as I want a deity to rely on, I don't want to believe what the rest of the world believes.

"Besides, the Society is Christian. That is the one religion that is slightly more believable than the rest of the religious practices. Which is a reason why I don't want to practice it."

"Zeta," said Ro, "It's not about the believability of the religions. It's about the faiths. I don't have a religion, but that's because I don't want to put my faith in a deity I don't know I can rely on."

"I don't understand."

"I don't, either. Not really. I don't see the point of religion."

I smiled. Ro smiled back. Our smiles were grim.

Maybe Ro and I understood each other more than I thought.

* * *

**Ro- Day ****49**

"Hey, Zeta," I started, "How did you become so philosophical? And where did you learn so much about the Society?"

"I don't know," he answered.

"Well, tell me when you find out." I mean, he lived in an asylum until he was six years old, only being taught the basics of what all Society members needed to know. He was on the run with me after that, ever since I broke him out of the asylum. So how did he know so much?

* * *

**Zeta****- Day ****55**

Ro and I had officially run out of 'insightful' things to talk about.

"Hey, Ro. What's your opinion on boxes?"

"How did this come up?" she grinned.

"I don't know. Maybe we need some comic relief from what we were talking about for the past few days," I replied.

I pulled off the chain that was always around my neck. It was a really small box. I pressed it, and a holographic image popped up from it. It was a calendar. I had almost forgotten about my box until Ro mentioned boxes.

"This is my box," I said softly. "It's a holographic calendar. It's been two months since we first left the Society."

Ro looked at the hologram. "You're right. We left exactly two months ago."

I nodded.

"Wait," she stopped and looked at the hologram again. "It's my birthday tomorrow."

"We've never celebrated birthdays before." For some reason, I hadn't noticed until now.

"I don't like celebrating birthdays. It reminds me too much of my family." An unspoken, '_And the Society_', was implied.

"_We're_ family now, Ro."

"You're right," she realized.

"Well, that's that," I decided to drop the subject. Apparently, we _hadn't_ run out of insightful subjects to talk about.

And we were silent again until we packed up for the day.

* * *

**Ro- Day 63**

"Remember the question you asked me two weeks ago?" Zeta asked me.

"Nope. I've stopped keeping track of the days. Speaking of which, how do _you_ do it?"

"My box. Remember?"

"Oh, yeah. What question?" I backtracked to his first sentence.

"You asked me how I became so philosophical and how I know so much."

"Oh, now I remember. I'm still wondering. You never actually got a full curricular education. So are you going to answer it or not?"

"Oh, right. The answer is…"

"Oh, out with it, Zeta!" I exclaimed. I was getting impatient.

"Internet," he responded flatly. I looked at him incredulously, but I couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Really," insisted Zeta. "I learned a lot of, um, stuff online, and with knowledge comes philosophy." Now why does that line sound _so_ famaliar?

"I'm surprised the Internet is still around. In our world, stuff becomes obsolete after fifty years or so. The Internet was popularized in the 1960's, and it was around way before that."

We burst out laughing.

* * *

**Zeta- Day 70**

"Ever heard of Shakespeare?" I asked.

"The factory-old guy that wrote in old English?"

"Older. He was around _before_ there were factories."

"Flag that. If I could understand the writing, I would probably like it."

"He's not biased like our Society is."

"Zeta. It's not _our_ Society anymore. Besides, who says that Shakespeare isn't biased? He's from a time when the people were _sexist_."

"Sexism was stupid. But at least it gave us roles. The women's role was to be looked down on from men."

"Exactly. And, if we lived in that era, I would have slapped you for it because I'm female. Now, I'm agreeing."

"I agree with 'women's rights are humans' rights'. Men _aren't_ better than women. I just don't see why everyone made such a big fuss."

"I don't know why people thought that men _are_ better than women."

We were silent for a while.

"We're running out of supplies again," noted Ro.

* * *

**Ro- Day 70**

"I wonder if we'll ever be in history books," I mused.

"I was thinking about that ever since we talked about Clark and Bruce."

"Huh. The truth is, I really don't want to make it to a City. If there _was_ one." After all, there was a _reason_ we ran away.

"Well, we _did_ run away for a reason," Zeta spoke my thoughts, yet didn't.

"Yeah, but we ran to get away from the Society. Not to find another City."

* * *

**Third Person- Day 84**

A rare gush of wind went by.

Ro and Zeta could tell. Not because they could feel it, as the wind was too soft, but they could see the wind blowing through the other's hair. Zeta could see the wind through Ro's dark hair, and Ro could see it through Zeta's blond hair.

Then, a shadow encompassed them. Ro and Zeta looked up.

One would expect the two to be scared. And they were. But they didn't look the part. Two months of trekking through a desert with no company but one another had given them the indifferent look. It was because they were accustomed to speaking to one another without caring about facial expressions.

Ro and Zeta thought the Society police had finally caught up to him. Behind them, however, were not uniformed Society people, but people in togas.

"Who are you?" asked the first man. It was not meant to be intimidating, yet it still was.

"Who are _you_?" countered Ro, returning the gesture.

"We'll assume you're not Society police, because of your clothing,"added Zeta. He whispered to Ro, "I think the Society police have stopped looking for us." He turned back to the men, "Are we right?"

"No. We _are_ the Society police. You're coming with us."

Zeta and Ro ran. The other man, who had not spoken yet, leapt in front of the two, stopping them.

"Clark, don't tease them."

Ro's eyes widened, "Clark? As in the guy that escaped the Society fifty years ago?"

Zeta turned to the other man, "And that would make you Bruce." Zeta's facial expression hadn't changed.

"Nice deduction," complimented Bruce dryly. It didn't sound like a compliment.

"Anyway," said Clark, "We heard about your escape." One would expect him to be looming, but he wasn't. He was actually… pleasant.

"How'd you find out?" asked Ro suspiciously, almost cutting him off.

"That's confidential," responded Bruce just as quickly as Ro had.

"We also heard you talking about us," Clark rattled on, ignoring Ro and Bruce, "From inside our caravan." Clark gestured to the caravan that Ro and Zeta had seen earlier in the dunes.

"So that's how," murmured Ro, answering her own question from earlier. She still felt something was missing.

"We found a City. And we want you to join us."

So that was it. The previous runaways wanted Zeta and Ro to join _their_ City.

"You don't have to decide now," offered Clark, "take as long as you want. When you _do_ decide, let us know when you encounter the caravan.

"In the meantime, you can stock up on supplies."

"Wait, what?" Zeta was confused.

"The city happens to be inside the caravan. It's bigger than it looks," explained Clark.

"The wonders of modern technology," muttered Bruce. He took Zeta and Ro's bags into the caravan, and when Bruce came out, the bags were full of what they needed.

"Thanks," said Ro. Bruce and Clark stalked back into the caravan and drove off.

* * *

**Zeta- Day ****85**

"Do you think we should?" I asked Ro.

"Nope," replied Ro, uncharacteristically cheerful and carefree. "I didn't run away from civilization to join another one."

"True. But neither did Clark and Bruce. Does that make them hypocrites?"

"Yes. But we're all hypocrites, in a way."

"_We're all_?" I wasn't sure what she meant by that. Did she mean everyone on Earth, or just everyone that had run away from the Society?

Ro didn't answer. Instead, she proposed a different question, "How do we know the City will be any different from the Society?"

"What are you talking about?" I wondered.

"The Society rejected us, well, you, because you were different. I'm different, too, but not the same way you are. The Society didn't accept that, so we left. Right?"

I nodded. I didn't want to say that it wasn't the real reason I left, but now that I thought about it, Ro's reason made more sense than mine. In fact, now that I really think about it, I can't remember my original reason for wanting to leave. Did it have something to do with boxes…? I let my thoughts on that go.

"What if the City doesn't accept our differences, either?" Apparently, Ro hadn't. Let the subject go, that is. Which meant I couldn't do it at the moment, either.

"But the City is full of people who are runaways from the Society. With people even _before_ Clark and Bruce who'll understand." Wait, if Clark and Bruce ran away from the Society as well, then why did everyone else from pre-Society times escape?

"If they're a City, they're a civilization. All civilization has its prejudices. We don't know which ones, but we do know they're there." So that was it. The pre-Society people had escaped because they didn't like the prejudices.

"The City is anarchist."

"Not necessarily. Bruce and Clark seem to be the chosen representatives, and someone has to have chosen them."

"True. And the new generation of their City must have its own different prejudices."

"So we don't join their City?" asked Ro, even though she was the one who didn't want to become part of the City in the first place.

"No," I agreed.

* * *

**Ro- Day ****96**

I wondered when my feelings for Zeta would change.

I've studied human behaviour and psychology for a long time, not that I got too far until I met Zeta. But I did conclude that when two humans were in isolation with no one but each other to keep them company, their feelings for one another would change.

I looked at Zeta sleeping. I've always woken up earlier than Zeta. Today, I studied his face. He had his pale blond hair framing his square chin nicely. His coal-black eyes, well, I couldn't see them since he was asleep, but I knew they were there. He was, well, beautiful.

I felt absolutely nothing but respect and friendship.

* * *

**Zeta- Day ****101**

I wasn't born (physically) heartless.

When I was really young, someone cut my heart out. They were, of course, from the Society. They were actually rogues, but, still of the Society.

The Society believes that when someone has no heart, they lose all sensation and feeling. They say nothing about morals, but they probably assume the physically heartless people don't care about them anymore.

When someone cut out my heart, they were hoping that I would become their robot to do their bidding. Because I wouldn't have feelings or morals. Or something along the lines of that. They kept me in an asylum until I was six years old. I learned enough to communicate. I knew of their intentions. I could tell they were hoping to make me into a weapon when I was older.

Instead, I escaped. Actually, Ro helped me escape. I still had the sensations and feelings as before I lost my heart. I still held my morals, and cared about them.

I don't know how I remember all this.

_After my heart was taken out, I was in an asylum cell. I could see my heart floating in a tube. I didn't care anymore. After all, I was heartless and therefore not 'human' anymore, right?_

_The asylum cells were just like any other. Gray. Windowless. Isolated from the rest of the world. Rather, they were more like jail cells than asylum cells._

_Was there actually a difference?_

_I was the only one in the asylum. There was no one else._

_Then a girl came in. She had raven black hair, but her bright blue eyes brightened her face. She had a kind face, and I immediately trusted her over the asylum employees._

"_My name is Ro," she said, "I'm getting you out of here."_

_Ro and I escaped the asylum. I realized that there was so much about the Society I didn't know._

_The government found out about me. My family found out about me. They, both the government and my biological family, wanted me to get an artificial heart. I don't know what possessed me to refuse at the time. Later, I actually had a reason, but I didn't at the time._

_I wasn't allowed to go back to my family after that. So Ro and I decided to hide out in the Society._

Seven years later, when I became thirteen, that wasn't enough anymore. So we ran away.

Here I am now. Walking across the sand dunes outside the Society with Ro. I'm thirteen years old. Or maybe fourteen. I don't know. I don't think I have a birthday.

* * *

**Third Person- Day 1****17**

Zeta and Ro saw the caravan again. The two older men inside the caravan spotted them too.

"Zeta, Ro," spoke Bruce, "Have you decided yet?"

Ro nodded curtly. "We're not joining your City. Sorry."

"It's alright," said Clark, "We understand. I'm just going to ask you something. What are you going to? You two can't be over, what, fifteen years old? Are you going to walk across these sand dunes for the rest of your lives?"

Zeta bit his lip, "I- we- haven't thought about that."

"Our offer still stands," said Bruce. "We know you're afraid of prejudice in our City."

"We are," confirmed Zeta, "Would it be possible if we joined your City, but continue travelling outside the caravan? That way, we can continue travelling for now, but we know we are not alone."

"I like that idea," agreed Ro. "I don't want to give up talking with Zeta in solitude."

The men nodded. "Deal." They walked back inside their caravan, and the City left.

* * *

**Zeta and Ro- Day 178**

We've been travelling across the desert for a long time. We're now a part of the City, and we know we're not alone. The City is not a perfect utopia, but what is?

There's so much about each other to learn, but we have as long as we need. Maybe, when we're tired of travelling, we'll start living in the City. For now, we're happy just walking across the sand dunes.

…_the end…_

_

* * *

_

**A/N (3): Bruce- First Batman. Clark- First Superman. I got rid of the last names too because last names are stupid. Oh, and they're also OOC.**

**A/N (4): Okay, so Agents Bennett, Lee, and West were also gonna make an appearance as Society police, but I didn't know how to incorporate that. Or rather, I could have, but it would have gotten repetitive.**


End file.
